The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has faced continued criticism for their business practices.
Some people believe student-athletes should be compensated for playing, while others argue they should not even receive athletic scholarships to attend academic institutions.
While this argument is important, a far more insidious practice falls under the radar.
Between 1900 and 1905, 45 college football players died from injuries during play. In response to this, President Theodore Roosevelt gathered Ivy League presidents and coaches to discuss ways to make the sport safer. From these meetings the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAA) was formed.
Chancellor James Roscoe Day of Syracuse University spoke on the organization’s priorities at the annual conference in 1909.
“The lives of the students must not be sacrificed to a sport. Athletic sports must be selected with strict regard to the safety of those practicing them. It must be remembered that the sport is not the end. It is incidental to another end far more important. We lose sight of both the purpose and the proportion when we sacrifice the student to the sport,” Day said.
In 1910, the IAA changed its name to the NCAA.
That’s not the only thing that changed.
The NCAA no longer believes that students must not be sacrificed for sport.
In 2011, Derek Sheely died from a traumatic brain injury sustained while playing football at NCAA Division Three Frostburg University. The trauma was so severe doctors asked his parents if he had been in a car accident.
While the coaches and university told his parents Sheely’s death was a freak accident, an anonymous letter from a teammate told a different story.
The letter claimed that Sheely’s death was preventable, and on the hands of the coaching and training staff.
The anonymous teammate was later identified and testified under oath that his claims were valid.
Sheely’s mother filed a suit against the NCAA claiming that it had a duty to protect her son.
“The NCAA denies that it has a legal duty to protect student-athletes,” the organization wrote in a court filing.
On the same page of that document, the NCAA admitted, “that a founding purpose was to protect student-athletes.”
To make matters worse, the NCAA has refused to investigate Sheely’s death despite numerous requests from the Sheelys.
Sheely’s father spoke about this in an interview with CBS.
“See if a player signs an autograph and gets paid, and all of the sudden the NCAA will have 20 people investigating that thing. But player well-being? Then it’s only guidelines,” he said.
An important thing to note is that Frostburg’s head coach Tom Rogish, who could and should be held responsible for Sheely’s death, is still coaching in the NCAA. Rogish is now assistant coach at the California University of Pennsylvania.
If there is a student-athlete at Texas A&M University – Kingsville (TAMUK) who is suffering at the hands of an abusive coach, the NCAA will not help you.
However, there is an entire student body and various law enforcement agencies that can.
We will believe you.